Splices between conductors of an aerial cable and a stub cable need to be protected against damage caused by insects, oxygen, moisture and the like. An example of a terminal incorporating such splices is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,836,696. This terminal has a rear compartment where splices are located and a front compartment where service or drop wires are connected to binding posts. The rear ends of the binding posts are connected to the aerial cable conductors via a stub cable. The aforementioned protection can be obtained by encasing the conductor splices in an encapsulant. Encasing also limits access to the splices by unauthorized persons and during work operations not associated with the splicing itself.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,875,325 issued to C. V. Anderson et al Apr. 1, 1975 discloses a telephone splice closure in which a semisolid gel type encapsulant is poured under pressure into an assembled splice closure which includes air vents to assure filling the interior of the closure. While such an arrangement provides the needed protection for the splices, it is more convenient in aerial plant installations to use an encapsulant that is poured around the splices in liquid form which later solidifies to provide the needed protection from damage.
Leakage of liquid encapsulant should be prevented to assure containment of the encapsulant in the splice region until solidification. Consequently, the closure must be substantially sealed against leakage of encapsulant prior to entrance of the encapsulant therein, but provision must be made to assure complete filling of the splice closure. It is also desirable to use an inexpensive closure and to keep the sealing operations simple and convenient since the encapsulation operations are performed off ground. The cost of the closure may be reduced if it is fabricated by vacuum forming or another economical process. These processes, however, often result in closure walls that vary substantially in thickness. The nonuniform thickness makes adequate containment of the liquid encapsulant difficult. It is an object of the invention to provide an improved splice closure having varying wall thickness adapted to be filled with a liquid encapsulant without leakage thereof.